Unfair but balanced commentary on tax and budget policy, contemporary U.S. politics and culture, and whatever else happens to come up

Sunday, September 16, 2007

TIAA-CREF is absolutely the worst, bar none

One alarming thing about being an academic is that so much of one's retirement saving is in the hands of the mega-organization, TIAA-CREF. Perhaps I should be hiding dollars in my mattress instead of working with these guys. It's pretty scary to think that I or my children will need to rely on them some day.

What prompts this reflection is my experiences over the past sixteen months or so with respect to a couple of small TIAA CREF accounts wiith survivorship rights that my late father left to my brother and myself. After months of repeated effort - calling frequently upon the receipt of incoherent correspondence, having to do the same ministerial steps two, three, or four times in a row, and so forth - my brother has actually succeeded in having his share of both accounts transferred to his name. I am still only one for two.

Most recently, I got some correspondence that, among other steps,required me to travel to my bank for a signature guarantee, signed by a bank officer. Okay, I did it, forty-five minutes or so out of a busy day, and sent it in.

This weekend I got a letter back from TIAF CREF. Dear Mr. Shaviro, etcetera, etcetera. You will have to do this form again, because the signature guarantee wasn't filled out. Attached to it, a Xeroxed copy of my last submission. On page 2, someone has helpfully highlighted in orange the instructions for the signature guarantee. Right next to it is the actual signature guarantee itself, fully filled out, everything there, not a line missing, and no indication of what the problem is except that they apparently don't realize it's there, even though they wrote me the letter and took the trouble of highlighting the instructions in orange, right next to my fully filled out text.

5 comments:

"AUM" - Assets Under Management is the name of the game. I find that investment management outfits typically make it quite easy to transfer assets in, but excruciatingly difficut to transfer them out. The competent folks are assigned to gather assets, while the imbeciles process withdrawals and account changes.

As a former employee of tiaa-cref and current participant, I feel your pain. I am currently sitting on hold, while waiting to simply access my account. I have now been on hold for over 20 minutes. This has been an ongoing problem since 1997 when I first began working for the company. It is just the tip of the iceberg.

A participant is required to jump through numerous hoops in order to even begin a logical, rational conversation with an intelligent consultant. Once you do get through to someone who can actually make sense of your account, (blame it on serious IT issues and a lack actual knowledge) that individual must try to sort out the mess that has been made of the account. A simple loan from my contract took over 10 phone calls, supervisor calls, and more than three weeks to complete. Don't forget, I'm a former employee and should have people there that I know and can trust. Simply not the case.

Rest assured, you can expect further delays in the processing of your father's account. Make copies of all documentation they ask you to submit so that you can have it handy when calling or when sent correspondence stating you haven't completed something to their liking. As soon as possible, move the funds out of tiaa-cref. You will be much happier and your financial state will be much more comfortable. I unfortunately am stuck with them until I die. Truthfully, until I die. As employees/former employees, we are NEVER able to transfer our company sponsored retirement accounts out of tiaa-cref, only our supplemental accounts can be moved. Good luck to you.

I recently discovered that the beneficiary on my 403(b) plan had been mysteriously changed from my wife (as it has been since the inception of my account 30-some years ago) to my ESTATE, with God-only-knows what potential consequences. I wrote to them, by certified mail, asking for a correction. It is now 6 weeks since they RECEIVED that letter and I have yet to receive an acknowledgment, much less a response. I gather that this kind of misfeasance/nonfeasance is not at all unusual.

My Tiaa-Cref account is nearly 25 years old and I think I am stuck with them until I retire in maybe another 13-15 years. As is the case with most other 401K and 403B carriers, they do not have any other investment option than Stock Funds, Bonds and Reit. Do they have Commodity (Gold) or Currency funds?

I agree with you 100% about the ridiculously dysfunctional customer service of TIAA-CREF. They are simply a joke. Currently I have nearly ten different accounts in 401k and 403b because they create a new account for my summer contribution, academic year contribution etc. They suspend my account previlige if I transfer out a given stock fund into MM fund twice in two months (each account is counted as one separate transfer, and I have ten of them!). I think they should be investigated for fraud.

About Me

I am the Wayne Perry Professor of Taxation at New York University Law School. My research mainly emphasizes tax policy, government transfers, budgetary measures, social insurance, and entitlements reform. My most recent books are (1) Decoding the U.S. Corporate Tax (2009) and (2) Taxes, Spending, and the U.S. Government's March Toward Bankruptcy (2006). My other books include Do Deficits Matter? (1997), When Rules Change: An Economic and Political Analysis of Transition Relief and Retroactivity (2000), Making Sense of Social Security Reform (2000), Who Should Pay for Medicare? (2004), Taxes, Spending, and the U.S. Government's March Towards Bankruptcy (2006), Decoding the U.S. Corporate Tax (2009), and Fixing the U.S. International Tax Rules (forthcoming). I am also the author of a novel, Getting It. I am married with two children (boys aged 16 and 19) as well as four (!) cats. For my wife Pat's quilting blog, see Patwig’s Blog.